tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe ‘vasthānam " Upon achieving
the condition of yoga (samādhi), the seer (individual self) abides in his own
spiritual form, or nature". In the previous verse Patañjali spoke about the
cessation of all the activities that constitute material consciousness - the
activities that generally take place within the mind. It's very interesting
that, in the commentary style of Vyāsa, he generally puts a question
before the śloka, or the sutra. And in putting a question, what he is doing
is using it as a device to then allow Patañjali to answer the question that he
poses. And the question that Vyāsa puts here is fundamentally that, when the
mind and consciousness are no longer absorbed in that which is material, what will
be the nature of the puruṣa? So we then have the answer
provided by Patañjali. And what we will do is go through each of the
English synonyms for the Sanskrit words: 'tadā' -
meaning of course, 'then'; then this 'draṣṭuḥ' is another form of this word
that's been used by Patañjali already - the 'seer', the individual 'self'.
When Patañjali uses this term...and I'll just use the English...the 'seer',
or 'draṣṭuḥ' in its form here, Patañjali is not actually intending that it mean the
power of physical sight through one of the sense
organs - the organs of sight. It's actually used in a more metaphorical way.
If we observe closely how central perception takes place - and the yogi's
would engage in these activities as part of the journey towards the self
discovery. Like for instance, lets take the physical sight or seeing
something. What happens is, light strikes an object and then bouncing off that
object, it enters the lens in the eye and it stimulates photosensitive cells in
the back of the eyeball, which are then agitated to produce electrical impulses
and those electrical impulses travel down the optic nerve and stimulate the
visual cortex of the brain. When you look at the mechanism of seeing (physical
sight), the mechanism does not explain how we actually see. I mean, the common person,
if you ask them how is it that you can see, most people say, "Well it's because
I've got eyes." But actually, the eyes don't truly 'see'. They just allow light
and images from the transformations of light to enter, and to stimulate the
back of the eye - the photosensitive cells that create electrical impulses. So how
is seeing actually taking place? This is a very big subject, and of course in
modern times - the interest in quantum physics - they also really examine this
phenomena, and begin to question where is perception actually taking place? And of
course, for the yogi's, they understood that the mind becomes the
repository, or like a movie screen, upon which all the different sensual
perceptions are projected. But who is it that's sitting in that movie house (if I
can use that analogy) and looking at the screen? Who is the one that's actually
observing? And this entity that's doing the actual observing was called by
Patanjali, 'the seer'. And so here in this verse, we begin to look at the
nature of that seer. So in the next word, 'svarūpe': 'sva' means 'one's own' -
It's inherently part of you, and the word 'rūpa' literally means 'form'.
So 'svarūpe', means one's own form or essential nature, and then 'avasthānam'
is the means that one stands, or abides, or resides, or is
situated, in that condition or state. So
when we look at this verse - this sutra, and the previous one together, then
we have an interesting reading, looking at these ideas together. "When the endless
mental fluctuations and modifications (vṛtti), which characterize
material consciousness, are suspended or arrested, that is Yoga.
Upon achieving the condition of yoga ( samādhi), the seer (individual self)
abides in his own spiritual form or nature." So this is a pretty amazing and
wonderful idea that's been presented here by Patañjali. I would just like
to bring your attention to three of the words from the second sutra and the
first pāda. And that is 'yogaś citta' and 'nirodhaḥ'. The reason I'm asking you to
look at this, is because it is amazingly similar to one verse in the Bhagavad-
gīta. In the sixth chapter Bhagavad-gīta which... it's title is 'Dhyāna'...
'Dhyāna-yoga' - where the process of meditation and the end result of
meditation are explained. We have this verse, the twentieth śloka, where we have these three
words - 'cittaṁ niruddhaṁ yoga'. Now while the term 'yoga' here is going to be
used a little bit differently - it has to do with the performance, or the
activities, the engagement in the process of yoga - we can see that
there are very clear similarities, and if we look at the English translation of
this verse, it literally could be used to further expound upon, or even replace
these two - the second and third sutras - of Patañjali. So, "In the state of perfection
called samādhi, one's mind is completely restrained from material mental
activities by the practice of yoga. This perfection is characterized by one's
ability to see the self by the pure mind, and to relish and rejoice in the self." So,
as always, I very much appreciated the great similarity between this verse
from the Bhagavad-gīta and these two sutras from Patañjali's
work. Now a big question arises. When Patañjali speaks of the 'svarūpe' - the
essential form or nature of the seer - he does not expand on this. If you ask, "Well
what does that mean?"- he has chosen not to speak to this subject. And we can
see that the focus of Patañjali is primarily - at least at this point, and
through much of the Yoga sutra - on the process, the contemplative process of
meditation to attain samādhi, and the very nature of the
mind that needs to be overcome or dealt with by the practitioner or aspirant - the
sādhaka, or the yogi. Of course we can ask, "Well why doesn't he say anything about the
actual nature of the living being?" We cannot actually say, and nor do I think
it is appropriate to to speculate on such a subject, but I find it of great
interest myself, primarily because of the way in which I have also been instructed
and taught by my guru - one of my spiritual teachers. My guru, he
taught that self-realization can be experienced
differently by different spiritual sādhakas. Full self realization means
the realization of one's actual essence, position, and natural function. So my Guru
Maharaj told me that, anything that you want to examine and know the
truth about, it's essential to know what is its essence. And if we can translate
that to something maybe simpler for many people, like: What constitutes it? What's
it made from? What is the essence of this object we're seeking to understand?
Position relates to: Where does it fit in the scope of things?
What is the nature of my connection or relationship with other living beings -
with other spiritual beings? What is my connection or relationship with the
material world in which I find myself in this embodied state? And so that
explains where the object will fit within a ...not exactly a hierarchy, but
within it's environment. And the third part of knowing something
in truth, is to understand it's natural function. In its pure and uncontaminated
state, what is the natural function of this object? And here we're speaking of
the atma, or the spiritual being, or the self. So the process of
self-realization can be experienced in a realization of one's essence, it can be
experienced in a realization of my position - which also includes my essence,
and on the furthest end of that spectrum of realization, is the realization of the
natural function of, in this case, the living being, the ātma, or the self.
And there are going to be a correlation between these realizations and what we
can broadly term as God realization, or realization of the highest Truth, or the
Ultimate Truth. So in relation to these three types of spiritual realization, one
way that this was being presented is that, all
self-realization is considered perfection, and it is truly perfection -
the perfection of human existence, of spiritual experience.
But the realization of one's position is considered to be even more perfect.
When I have a broader understanding and realization of my position, realization
of the natural function of the eternal being has been categorized as most
perfect, but on this subject we will talk a little bit more about that as we go
forward. Thank you very much.